Sakura's first
by Turbotail88
Summary: A young teenager slides down the wall in a hospital, weeping. What actions have caused this? Why is she in a hospital? Rated K plus for minor coarse language and hospital themes.


One shot

Sakura's First

Timeline: Shippuden, sometime after Gaara's Rescue Arc

**DISCLAIMER: I DO NOT OWN NARUTO! ANYTHING THAT SCREAMS NARUTO BELONGS TO MASASHI KISHIMOTO-SAN!**

"No, no, no…" I whimpered.

I slid down the wall and sat down on the floor. I was in a hospital dressed in a nurse outfit and a white lab coat. I had a nurse mask around my neck and my hair was loose with my hairnet on the ground. My face was in my latex glove-covered hands as I cried. My eyes were probably red and moist from crying. I just kept sobbing and weeping for my failure and berated myself for not finishing on time. Because of me, a life was lost…

**[Flashback]**

I was sitting on a bench in the hospital hallways eating my lunch. Today was a good day. My friends and I were going to go shopping around Konoha and eat out once my shift is over. This is why I love Fridays. I closed my eyes in delight as I felt the delicious rice go down my throat. My mom always was a good cook.

"Hey! Get over here! We need your help!" a nurse called out to me.

I looked at the nurse, put away my lunch and smiled as I approached her. "What's going on," I asked.

"We need your help with a patient. You're one of our best medics. Shizune-san is currently busy with another patient and Tsunade-sama is in an emergency council meeting. Hurry! I'll explain on the way," the nurse's name, which I recalled, was Neri.

My face broke into a serious expression. "Explain and elaborate," I ordered.

We broke into a fast walk through the halls and Neri began to explain the patient's situation.

"The patient's name is Alex and he is currently in a sleep-induced state to try to slow down and prevent his condition from worsening. He is currently suffering from a rare kind of intentional food poisoning and is in critical condition. The symptoms he currently has are intensive sweating, fever, rashes all over his body, incoherent speeches and occasional spasms while unconscious. When he was conscious, he had the regular symptoms of nausea, vomiting and diarrhea. Every hour seems to worsen his condition. We've tried our best to stabilize him but it seems the poison is too strong. He only has four hours left," the nurse explained.

"Shinobi or civilian?" I asked.

"Shinobi. He was a Chunin sent on a mission to deliver a product to a client at an inn. His teammates explained that he was training after lunch when he suddenly vomited and collapsed. They brought him here as soon as they could," Neri explained.

"Were there any other reports of incidents like this?" I questioned.

"No, Alex is the only one to have suffered such a case," Neri answered.

"So it wasn't just a coincidence…" I muttered.

I nodded and slipped my gloves on with a resounding ___slap_. I tied my hair into a short ponytail and put on my hairnet. I put up my mask as I entered the ER and took one look at my patient. I may have looked confident to all the other doctors and nurses but on the inside I was nervous and my knees were trembling slightly. I wiped sweat off my brow with the back of my wrist. _I ha__d__ a bad feeling about this… I've never heard of this kind of poison…_

"Flashlight," I ordered, walking into the room. A nurse handed me a small flashlight.

"Those of you who have other patients to attend to may leave. The rest stay with me," I commanded.

Only two nurses, including Neri, and one doctor remained. I walked on the left side of the patient and opened his left eye. I turned on the flashlight and pointed it at his pupils. No reaction. _Damn it.._

"Add no reaction to light on the list of symptoms," I said.

"I'm on it," Neri answered.

I shivered at the sight of his eyes as I remembered them… _Lifeless. Like Chiyo-baa-sama…_

"What have you tried so far?" I asked while examining the patient.

"We've tried every antidote we have in this hospital: from the basic herbs to the complicated mixes. Apple cider vinegar, grapefruit seed extract, garlic, colloidal silver, goldenseal root. We tried those various ingredients to cure food poisoning, as we first thought it was," a nurse, Suki, explained.

"What do you mean by that?" I pressed.

"It seems the sample we extracted was identified as food poison because of the traces of Salmonella and E. coli in it. Mix that with the food the patient ate and you have food poisoning. It distracted us for a long time and we still haven't been able to find a cure. Whoever the creator is has a lot of experience in poison for fooling us," Suki elaborated.

"How long have you guys been on this?" I questioned the doctor.

"We've been on this for currently six hours," the doctor, Satori, answered worriedly.

My stomach dropped at that. _Six hours? What the hell? _"Wha.. what? Six hours!" I widened my eyes in disbelief.

"Quick! I want a sample of the poison right now! Do you have it?" I ordered.

"Yes here it is," Neri handed me a small, four centimeter-sized vial of red substance. There were small droplets of an orange blob and, if you looked close enough, little, microscopic-like sized white dots. _Rice.. Oh, Kami… I just ate rice.. Wait a second.. That's not rice.._

"Can you identify the substances in this vial? The red is blood, the orange is the poison but what is the white?" I asked.

"We don't know! We've been trying to identify it for a while now yet we still have trouble because of it being unheard of!" Dr. Satori answered, panicking.

"It's too hard! He'll die at this rate!" Suki yelled.

_SLAP, SLAP!_

Both Suki and Dr. Satori held their cheeks in shock. "Enough! We will not give up on our patient just because it's _'hard'_. The harder it is, the more worthwhile it is in the end! Remember our oath to help patients no matter who they are and their condition!" I said in a harsh and strict tone.

They bowed their heads in shame. "Forgive us!" they chorused. I smiled.

"You are forgiven. The next time anyone mentions abandoning a patient I will personally give you a lesson on never abandoning a fellow comrade. Alright, here's what we'll do: I'll concentrate on stabilizing the patient and you three will try to identify the white substance. Me and Neri will take turns every thirty minutes since only we know how to use Medical Ninjutsu. I'll start first. Are we clear?" I explained.

"Yes ma'am," they chorused. I smiled. Sometimes, my bossy side came in handy. I brought a rag, dampened it and put it on his forehead. I then made hand seals and activated the **Mystic Palm Technique. **I placed my green-glowing hands on the bare chest of the patient, inhaled through my nose and exhaled through my mouth. _This is gonna take a while.._

* * *

_2 hours later…_

_Deadline- 2 hours_

I lifted one hand carefully, grabbed a napkin and wiped the sweat off my face. My routine was like this: replace the cloth on his forehead, clean any traces of blood, heal him for ten minutes and then rest for ten minutes while Neri took my position and I checked on the progress of my helpers. The alarm rang which signalled my time to rest. Neri came and administered her Mystic Palm. I joined the other two at the make-shift lab and studied their notes. So far, they tried to find out what it was. They've had at least two hundred guesses if not more.

"I have a suggestion." They looked up. "Why don't you see what it reacts to the most for a better understanding of what it is?"

Their eyes widened and they got to work, taking needles and extracting various samples from Alex's body. They had ten tries. Anymore samples and he would suffer death from blood loss. Oh right, the past hour he began to cough large amounts of blood and was bleeding from his mouth and nose, which signalled the beginnings of possible internal bleeding.

* * *

_100 minutes later…_

_Deadline- 20 minutes._

COUGH! HACK!

"Help! I can't hold onto the technique with him vomiting blood!" Neri yelled.

I ran to her and wiped the blood clean and threw away the rags I used and repeated the process. I was visibly tired. Although how Neri seemed to look alright was beyond me. The bell rang and I cursed under my breath.

"It's alright. I have large enough chakra reserves to last the rest of this. We're getting closer so it'd be better if you helped them," Neri assured me, although she looked like she was starting to wear out. _Me and my big mouth…_

"I.. Alright," I sighed. Her eyes reminded me of my ever-so-determined teammate. I smiled and reluctantly left to join my helpers. They had currently tested nine samples and were comparing notes with each other. _They look like a cute couple… _I shook my head, berating myself for thinking like that during an emergency. I looked at the vials of blood and poison that were mixed with various substances. Although I saw nothing at a first glance, I noticed each thing had something similar in common: each substance used was nothing that could cause a reaction of this calibre. _I wonder… what would happen if I used chakra.. _Her eyes widened. _Shinobi.. chakra.. Oh Kami, thank you so much!_

Suki was about to grab the last vial until I yelled out: "WAIT! I KNOW THE ANSWER!" She stopped and nearly fell over at my outburst.

"What?" Dr. Satori said, relieved.

"Chakra! Let's try chakra! I'll send a small stream of chakra and we'll see the reaction!" I explained.

Their eyes widened and they looked relieved. I grabbed the vial and concentrated a small amount of chakra. The reaction was instantaneous: the blood heated up and the white dots grew and began to cover the poison. It seems as though when the blood was extracted; the lack of chakra allowed the white dots to go back to normal size… In other words… the chakra fed the white dots so they could protect the poison from cures and the criminal had made it look like food poisoning so we wouldn't try to use chakra.

I explained my discovery and we quickly worked on a remedy. Suki brought out a special machine that allows the extraction of chakra. I took two hand-sized contraptions out of the machine, slid them on my hands, placed them on Alex's bare chest and began to extract chakra. The meter quickly rose in numbers. The numbers represented the measure of how much chakra was being pulled out. A small blob of chakra with a circumference of one inch represented one chakra. _50, 100, 150, 200… _The light started to flash green and a beeping noise was made to signify he was low on chakra. I raised my hands up to slow down the process. He started to break in an intense sweat and began to shake violently.

"Hold him down! Sedate him if you have to! We're almost there! Give me our time!" I yelled.

"We only have one minute left!" Neri yelled while grabbing hold of his arms and pinning them on his sides.

"Damn it!" I swore.

Dr. Satori grabbed Alex's legs while Suki was busy working on a remedy for the poison. As soon as she had come back, the machine's light then flashed red and I pulled away sweating. I almost smiled once she injected the antidote… then I heard the flat line. _No! No, no! _Tears fell down as everyone scrambled to get the defibrillator.Alex opened his eyes one last time and I saw the lifeless look. The same Chiyo-baa-sama showed before giving her life for Gaara. I slid down my mask and whispered: "Rest, be free." He nodded and coughed a vicious amount of blood before passing away. I closed his eyes with my hand and closed my own eyes while letting the tears streak down my cheeks. The others were about to revive him when I stopped them with my hand.

"It's over.. He's long gone," I whispered.

"How can you say that? Who was the one who-"

"I said it's over. His eyes.. they were the same as her…" I whispered.

They looked at me like I was insane. I ignored them and left the ER. I tore away my hairnet, loosened my ponytail and slid down onto the floor.

"No, no, no…" I whispered.

**[End flashback]**

"…and she hasn't moved for thirty minutes, Tsunade-sama," a familiar voice said.

"I see… Allow me to handle this, Neri. You have the rest of the day off," Tsunade said.

"Thank you, Tsunade-sama," Neri said, bowed then left.

"Look at me, **Sakura**," Tsunade ordered.

I lifted my head and looked at Tsunade with puffy, red, emerald eyes.

"I failed, Shishou," I whispered.

"No, you didn't," Tsunade said, as she sat down next to me.

"How can you say that? That man.. he died because I couldn't think fast enough! And-"

_SLAP!_

I held my now pink, tear-stained cheek and widened my eyes. Tsunade sighed.

"Sakura, what you did is an accomplishment in itself. You fought hard to cure the poison and in turn found a cure, but at the cost of a life. What's better? Losing a life with nothing gained or losing a life with something gained? I know how hard it is when you lose your first patient. Just be glad that it wasn't a friend," Tsunade sighed once more, this time with more regret in her voice._I knew she was most likely thinking of Dan._

"This is what it's going to be like in a couple of years, Sakura. When I retire eventually, you will be faced with many possible deaths. What's important is that your spirit, your _**Will of Fire**_, doesn't die along with your patients. Strive to learn from your failures so that you won't make another mistake. Just so you know, being Hokage is the same thing… Except with an entire village," Tsunade closed her eyes and chuckled wryly.

"I.. Thank you, Shishou. I promise to not repeat this mistake and to make you proud of my spirit," I stood up and bowed to Tsunade.

"If you'll excuse me, I have friends waiting for me," I excused myself and smiled, walking down the hallway.

"You see, you old man, even medics have a burning _**Will of Fire**_," Tsunade told the ceiling, grinning.

* * *

**Whew... Okay this thing was stuck in my head for some time.. I tried to imagine how Sakura would react to one of her patients dying because she wasn't fast enough. So yeah here it is to entertain yourselves.. =)**

**07/24/13:: revised... removed annoying a/n, changed story notes, fixed grammer and pov.. think that's it**


End file.
